


and the world's gonna know your name

by Sheeana



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Timelines, F/M, Family, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Marriage, Pregnancy, Sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-25
Updated: 2013-01-25
Packaged: 2017-11-26 21:36:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/654648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheeana/pseuds/Sheeana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three futures Billy Kaplan created.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and the world's gonna know your name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [failsafe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/failsafe/gifts).



> This is an AU in which Children's Crusade happened differently and Cassie survived, and the original Young Avengers are still a team afterwards.
> 
> Title from [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jukv9Q1eR2g) song.
> 
> Happy birthday bb <3

Billy never claimed that he could see the future, because that would be insane. No one could see the future. (No one he knew personally, anyway.)

He couldn't see the future. But he could sense when things were converging. Some moments were more important than others. Sometimes the whole universe revolved around a single atom, and he was the one who got to decide the shape of the future. Usually moments like that were less grandiose than this; usually he felt it when two people were deciding whether or not to kiss, or when numbers were being chosen for a lottery. It wasn't usually when he and his friends were floating high in the sky above New York, safely (relatively speaking) enclosed in a bubble far above where the air became thin to breathe, holding a nuclear bomb suspended with blue light in front of him.

On a normal day, though, no one tried to start World War III. On a normal day, he woke up in bed with Teddy and zapped his alarm clock into submission so he could sleep another fifteen minutes. On a normal day, Tommy called him and babbled inanely about something neither of them cared about just because that was what they _did_. So today wasn't a normal day, and this moment was one of the most important ones Billy had ever experienced. And then the timer reached twenty, and. Well. They were out of time, and Billy was out of options.

He didn't know if he could deal with that much raw power. He'd done it once before, but his power fluctuated wildly. It didn't always work the way he wanted. He didn't know if he could control his magic well enough yet to choose how this ended. He might stop it, or he might make it worse. He might be able to get it to go off in space, or he might only be able to contain it to right here, which would be great news for everyone on the ground, but not so great for everyone _right here_.

"We're not leaving you," Eli said calmly, while his hand found Kate's at his side and their fingers slid together, gripping tightly. She just met Billy's eyes and gave a slight nod. They were afraid, but they were his friends. No, his family. Of course they weren't leaving.

"Billy, you fucking asshole, don't you fucking dare-" came Tommy's voice, crackling over the intercom that somehow still functioned here – as if by magic. Billy managed what might be one last smile.

"I love you," said Teddy. The whole world seemed to narrow to just the four of them, the love of Billy's life and two of his best friends, the last people he would ever see if this didn't work. He could live with that. (Well, not really, but it wasn't the worst way to die.)

He took a deep breath, and the glow in his palms began to brighten.

 

**One**

 

"So I decided I don't really need a college degree to be the prince of an alien empire," Teddy told Billy, his expression thoughtful.

"I decided your boyfriend's an idiot," Tommy said, as he jogged up behind Teddy and slung an arm around his shoulder.

"I decided you need to stop complaining," said Kate, elbowing Tommy lightly in the side. He made a face and a hurt sound, falling away as if he'd been terribly injured, but she didn't seem convinced. 

"Well, he _is_ an idiot-" he started to argue.

"Are _you_ pregnant with twins?" Kate said irritably, but she was caressing her round belly gently, and Tommy knew for a fact that she was only pissed because she couldn't go play streetsmart superheroes with Clint Barton at night anymore. Not that he was jealous or anything. She wasn't pregnant with Clint's twins.

"No," he said.

"Then shut up." And as if by some latent miracle the universe had been holding back until now, Tommy decided to obey. 

"Your dad told me your little brothers miss you," Teddy said softly, interrupting them both as he knelt in the grass. He stretched out his hand, and his fingertips brushed against the stone, against the unchanging words carved into it. Tommy and Kate always had a hard time knowing what to say when they did this, because it felt like they were intruding on something private. Something not meant for their ears.

 _Billy Kaplan_ (not "William," Rebecca and Jeff had insisted, and Teddy had backed them up)  
 _"Wiccan"  
1990 – 2010_

For a long time, Teddy just knelt there, saying nothing else. One fingertip traced the B, as if he was reluctant to stop touching it, as if it was something real and not just a letter.

"Hey, little bro. I'm gonna be a dad," Tommy said eventually. He waited, as if something was going to change. As if Billy could warp reality from beyond the grave, or something. He wouldn't put it past him, but... nah. "... You're supposed to say "wow, Tommy, that's the worst idea I've ever heard.""

"Wow, Tommy," Kate began dryly, glancing at Teddy.

"That's the worst idea I've ever heard," Teddy finished for her, with a slight smile. Small victories. That was where it all started. First you stood up. Then you figured out the rest.

They didn't talk about it. And Tommy actually liked it that way, because he didn't want to talk about it. He didn't want to _discuss his feelings_ about waking up on a football field to watch the glittering aftermath of the bright white flash everyone claimed to have witnessed in the sky. He figured Teddy probably felt the same, because after he'd stopped smashing things in some kind of actual Hulk rage, he'd spent a month not mentioning Billy's name at all. Even when all the news stations were crediting Billy Kaplan and not just Wiccan with saving New York from the fallout, with preventing global catastrophe, Teddy had just pretended it wasn't there, on every screen and splashed across every front page. And then when Eli had finally snapped and told them all he was leaving, Teddy had just calmly looked up and said that Billy wouldn't want them to stop.

So they still strapped on their costumes, which looked more ridiculous and childish with each passing year, and they still tried to save the world – or at least whatever small part of it they could – while they studied for exams and got pregnant and worked day jobs like real superheroes. 

And if something was always missing, that just made them work twice as hard to be half as good.

 

**Two**

 

"Don't even say that," Billy said, staring wide-eyed at himself in the mirror. "Don't even think that."

"Why not, little brother? Does it bother you?"

"Because I'm getting married today, and I'm putting my foot down. There is not going to be an alien invasion of _any kind_."

"Whatever. That'd be awesome." Tommy made a gesture with his hand. "Pew pew. Lasers."

"Awesome doesn't mean what you think it means," said Billy, shaking his head. He adjusted his red tie at his neck again. He'd tried to convince his parents to go for the wedding-in-costume, but they'd insisted. He could never deny his parents anything.

"Yeah, yeah. Billy Kaplan, savior of the world, averter of World War III, gayest twin brother ever. I'm happy for you," Tommy said sarcastically. "You two gonna adopt a baby Skrull or something? Where do Skrulls come from, anyway?"

"Eggs," Billy said absently, but he didn't miss the sudden horrified look on Tommy's face as someone knocked at the door. Then Wanda Maximoff was peeking her head into the room and stepping inside, and Tommy didn't get a chance to make fun of him.

"I'm so proud of you," Wanda said, smiling in a way that still made Billy's heart ache, a little bit, because he knew her life inside out and she didn't usually have a lot of reasons to smile. She didn't just mean his wedding, either, and that made him feel like he was melting from the inside out. The Scarlet Witch was one of his moms. The Scarlet Witch was _proud_ of him. Tommy would probably be disgusted.

"Come on. You're gonna be late for your own wedding," Tommy said, grabbing Billy's arm. Billy had just long enough to gulp and then he was being dragged out onto the lawn, where almost every single person he knew was waiting – but he only really had eyes for one of them. He only ever would.

So he and Teddy walked down the aisle with Tommy and Kate and Cassie and Eli and Jonas, and even though some of the _actual_ most important people on Earth were present, this felt like being surrounded by the most important people in the universe. This wasn't how weddings usually went, probably, but he didn't care. All he wanted was to take Teddy's hands, look up into his eyes, and promise to be exactly how they were now for each other forever. 

So that was what he did.

-

While he leaned his head against Teddy's broad shoulder and let the music carry him away, he watched his friends and family, marvelling at their contentment. Two years ago the world had almost ended (and again last week, actually) and it would probably happen again in a few months, but right now – right now they were happy. Wanda and Pietro actually having a civil conversation with Erik Lehnsherr. Cassie dancing with her dad while Jonas looked on and waited for her. Tommy dozing on a chair with his head on Eli's shoulder and his fingers entwined with Kate's, and Eli's hand on Kate's knee, and wow, Billy was going to pretend he hadn't seen that. Steve Rogers laughing at something Tony Stark was saying. Billy actually couldn't imagine a more perfect day.

And that was when the aliens invaded.

Surprisingly it wasn't the Skrulls, or even the Kree attacking because Teddy had invited a few Skrulls. They were wailing something about grievances and settling scores, and Billy idly thought that he was pretty sure he knew what that meant as he went sailing in the aftershock of the ship landing square in the middle of his wedding.

"How many species _are_ your people at war with?" he shouted, incredulous, as he got back to his feet. 

"How should I know?" Teddy yelled back, helping Rebecca to her feet and helping her move out of the way, while everyone else stood up. Wanda's hands started to glow, and Tommy was already zipping back and forth, a blur of motion.

"Where'd you get that?" Kate was giving Clint a look, because he suddenly had a bow in his hands and a quiver of arrows on his back.

"Where'd you get _that_?" Clint shot back, pointedly eyeing the flimsy wooden staff Kate had made from a chair leg and was brandishing at the aliens. Just an ordinary day in New York, really.

Could they really have expected anything less? With a deep, long-suffering internal sigh (that he might have made external by accident), Billy summoned his magic while Teddy discarded his suit jacket so he could transform without ripping it, and yeah. This was exactly how he should have expected this to go.

 

**Three**

 

**The Young Avengers**  
 _by Melanie Martin_

When I first started thinking about writing a piece on the Young Avengers, I can't say my idea was met with a lot of enthusiasm in the office. It's been a few years, and the names have all but disappeared from the press. Sure, everyone knows who Wiccan was, but I think a lot of people have forgotten about Billy Kaplan by now. After you put a distance of five or six catastrophes between something, it starts to lose its potency. The Young Avengers aren't a topic du jour, anymore. 

And then there are the ever-elusive Cassie Lang, the Vision, and Thomas Maximoff (formerly known, of course, as Tommy Shepherd). No one's ever interviewed them about their former team. How was I going to do this? But the moment I had the idea, I knew I had to do it. The story had already been told, but it needed an ending.

Anyway, long story short, eventually I convinced my boss to let me do a piece on the Young Avengers. He told me he wanted it to be about a question. Just one question, he said, because it's the question people will care about:

_Who were the Young Avengers?_

\---

Eli Bradley, known as Patriot. Team leader.

Kate Bishop, known as Hawkeye. Formerly the partner of Clint Barton, also Hawkeye.

Teddy Altman, known as Hulkling. Also known as Dorrek VIII, prince of the Skrull Empire.

Billy Kaplan, known as Wiccan. You probably already know what he's famous for.

The Vision, also known as Jonas. Whereabouts currently unknown.

Cassie Lang, known as Stature, currently a member of the Avengers.

Thomas Maximoff, or I should say Tommy Shepherd, because that was his name when he was a member of the original team. Known as Speed. Currently head of the Compatriots, which I've been informed is _not_ a name he would have chosen himself for his team. 

There are a lot of things I might tell you about the Young Avengers. You probably know about Wiccan and Hulkling; what you don't know is that they got engaged six days before the bomb went off. You probably know that Wiccan and Speed were brothers; what you don't know is that Tommy Shepherd had to go home and tell two different mothers and one father that their son died saving the world. You might know that Eli Bradley was following in the footsteps of his grandfather. You probably don't know that he was about to graduate with a degree in political science. You might know that Kate Bishop was jointly responsible with Clint Barton for the uncovering of the planned Independence Day Heist, but maybe you don't know that privately, he's referred to himself as Hawkeye II since the day she died.

If you're going to remember one thing about these people, don't remember that they died saving you. Remember that they had friends, families, hopes, dreams. Remember that they were young.

\---

I meet Cassie and Thomas at the memorial statue. The Vision, I'm told, can't be here. No one offers an explanation why. Above us, the faces of their former teammates are carved in stone, never changing. I think this is especially wrong for Teddy Altman, who could change his face at will, but I don't say anything about it.

I ask if they look like they did when they were alive. Neither of them say a word. I think the question might have been insensitive.

We stand in silence for a long time.

"It didn't hurt. They didn't feel it," Cassie ventures, eventually.

"That's bullshit," says Thomas. When I look at him, he shrugs. "What? They were my team, and they died saving the world, and I think that's fucking bullshit. Billy's an idiot," he tells me. "And I'm proud of him. Write that down."

So that's what I do.

\---

Who were the Young Avengers? I don't think that's a good question at all. I don't think you should care about that question. The name didn't die in the skies above New York with Eli Bradley, Kate Bishop, Billy Kaplan, and Teddy Altman. Cassie Lang and Thomas Maximoff might not call themselves Young Avengers anymore, but every day, they put on their uniforms and they go out to save the world in small ways – or sometimes, when they're needed most, in big ways.

Anyone who won't take no for an answer. Anyone who thinks everyone deserves a second chance. Anyone who wants to make the world at least a little bit better: you should wear the name Young Avenger with pride.

We shouldn't be asking who the Young Avengers were. We should be asking: who _are_ the Young Avengers?


End file.
